Escaping the Temple won the first prize at Fresh Pitch held in late October at Dongshan, Suzhou. The Fresh Pitch jury invited commissioning editors from mainstream documentary channels, festivals and sectors in China, the UK, the US, Canada and South Korea and the emerging forces and inter-disciplinary partners in the documentary field.

Mirroring the themes in the dance performance of the same name by modern dance Choreographer Zhao Liang, Escaping the Temple tells the intensely personal intertwined stories of three sensitive, individualistic and rebellious modern dancers each reaching a crossroads in their lives. They must all resolve their issues to move forward.

It shows a China not well known to the world, young Chinese people who are creative and passionate, a new vision where ancient beliefs and culture collide with the moral and spiritual vacuum of modern-day capitalism.

Escaping the Temple will be aired on French/German national broadcaster Arte’s La Lucarne in Spring/Summer 2017.

With an amazing dreamteam cast including Dicaprio himself, President Obama, Elon Musk and Pope Francis,'Before the Flood' is a powerful reminder of the challenges we face to our environment.

Known for its Nat Geo documentary Green China Rising and having previously worked with director Fisher Stevens on SkyladderMandarin Film was called in to arrange the Chinese part of the shoot. With such a high profile celebrity the logistics and security had to be flawless - Dicaprio’s popularity in China meant that we estimated we had around 3-5 minutes in any public location before we ran the risk of being mobbed.

After last minute nerves getting filiming permits and a visa for DiCaprio the shoot turned out amazingly well, interviewing China’s highest profile environmental minister, a climate activist and getting amazing footage around Beijing, including a ride on a rickshaw on the streets of Beijing.

Mandarin Film handled all aspects of production including prep, permissions, visas, logistics, crew, and equipment.

The film has been in theaters around the world and had its world TV premiere on National Geographic on October 30th, but in recognition of the subject’s importance, NG will also release it for free on youtube, hulu, google play, facebook and itunes.

"Fisher Stevens' latest documentary (formerly titled The Turning Point) chronicles Leonardo DiCaprio's campaign to raise global awareness about the dangers of climate change in his role as a UN Ambassador of Peace.

Future generations will judge us by how we deal with climate change. 'Before the Flood' is a rousing call to action from longtime environmental advocate Leonardo DiCaprio and actor/filmmaker/Oscar-winning documentary producer Fisher Stevens (The Cove). Named as a United Nations Ambassador of Peace, DiCaprio is on a mission. The film follows him as he travels to multiple countries, bearing witness to climate change on a scale that no one should deny.

From the toxic tar sands of Alberta to the frequently flooded streets of Miami Beach, from the smog-choked avenues of Beijing to the incinerated forests of Indonesia, DiCaprio meets with scientists, politicians, and activists to face the facts: natural disasters are becoming more frequent, wildlife is vanishing, communities are being destroyed. What is to be done?

This isn't the first environmental documentary and it won't be the last. But DiCaprio's charisma makes it one of the most accessible. His passion and inquisitiveness radiate in his blunt talk and genuine curiosity. He confesses to feelings of pessimism, but he receives motivating wisdom from luminaries including entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk, meteorologist and astronaut Piers Sellers, activist and environmentalist Sunita Narain, and President of the United States Barack Obama.

As it sweeps us along on its fascinating tour, 'Before the Flood' reminds us of the beauty and diversity of our world. It also galvanizes us to do whatever it takes to save the planet — and ourselves." From TIFF review, 2016

Cai Guo-Qiang is an electrifying artist who creates massive drawings from fireworks, meant to unite Eastern philosophy and contemporary social issues. Most famous for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Cai explores the connections between the human and the cosmic, destruction and creation, the eternal and the fleeting. The film follows the artist across the globe as he creates large-scale, visually stunning new work with explosives, and it traces his rise from an ordinary child growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution to the art superstar that he is today.

Mandarin Film was the China production services provider for this documentary feature film, arranging everything from permissions, logistics, crew, equipment to government liaison. A memorable moment was having eight camera crews overlooking the 2014 Beijing APEC event where Cai was organizing a firework art piece for the world’s leaders and being told that our crews would be shot by snipers if they moved from their designated areas! Sharpens the mind.

The most challenging part of the shoot came at the denouement of the film, when (without giving too much away) Cai attempts to suspend a 500 meter firework ladder from an enormous hot-air balloon. In total we organized eleven camera positions, with everything from Red Epics, Amiras, Movi rigs and Gopros to two remote control helicopter crews circling the action (in high wind).

To stay away from prying eyes, the event took place on a remote island with little electricity or internet connection, and several tonnes of equipment needed to be shipped to and fro using local fishing boats. On top of this, the onset of typhoon season meant days of delays, and a shoot on the edge of safety limits (No one wants a balloon carrying a ladder containing several tonnes of detonating fireworks drifting over their head).

The film has been selected for Sundance 2016:

“With unfettered access, filmmaker Kevin Macdonald combines the artist’s intimate reflections with interviews from friends, family, and members of the art world. Vérité footage of Cai's artistic process culminates in his final realization of a lifelong pursuit: Sky Ladder, a visionary, explosive event that he pulls off in his hometown in China after 20 years of failed attempts. Kevin Macdonald’s superbly constructed, luminous film captures for posterity the brilliance of an artist whose ephemeral work is, by its nature, completely of the moment.”

Produced by Fisher Stevens (The Cove, Racing Extinction), Directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, Last King of Scotland) and shot in part by Bob Yeoman (any Wes Anderson film you care to mention), this all star cast and crew was an incredible film to be involved with.

The Google/Bitauto and Google/AirChina case studies mark the first in a series of collaborations with British creative agency Across the Pond.

Mandarin Film was asked to be the China production partner for a number of shoots with major multi national companies based in China, who partner with Google to maximize their data value. These companies include Bitauto, Air China, JD.com and Unilever.

Mandarin Film handled all aspects of production in China, including brief prep, shoot and some aspects of post production such as transcription and translation. Whilst on tight deadlines the work needed to conform with strict standards of the highest quality as befitting leading global companies.

The concept for the Google/Bitauto video was to show the ways in which Google’s data analytics tools and platforms have revolutionized Bitauto’s marketing strategy by providing more targeted digital solutions and deep audience insights. After a recce to check out suitable backdrops, Mandarin Film carried out multiple interviews at the Google and Bitauto offices with senior executives from both companies. The case study drew light on the strong partnerships Google enjoys with various leading Chinese brands by effectively managing their partners’ data and creating smarter campaigns.

The video was produced and directed by Mandarin Film’s Patrick Carr and shot by Aymerick Pilarski with an Arri Amira camera.

The footage was then flipped to Across the Pond who produced the amazing visuals that led to a beautiful visual story and happy clients.

Awarded a Eurodoc development prize and already due to be shown on French/German national broadcaster Arte’s La Lucarne slot in summer 2016, Escaping the Temple tells the intensely personal intertwined stories of three sensitive, individualistic and rebellious modern dancers each reaching a crossroads in their lives. They must all resolve their issues to move forward.

This documentary shows a side of China people rarely see: young Chinese people who are creative, passionate and (often) confused. It is beauty and art mixed with the messy trials and tribulations of life in modern China. We are hopeful that this doc can bring cultures and people together to celebrate those things we all share - appreciation of beauty, passion and creativity and a common struggle to make sense of our world.

Don't be put off though - the characters are funny, vulnerable and cute - as well as devastatingly good looking and mind-bendingly flexible. This doc is a celebration of life!

The concept was to drive the lead engineer of the project along the Skyroad in a top of the range Jaguar XJ and have him explain in his own words the awe-inspiring feats of engineering that makes this new road so special.

“In the final film of our Innovation Tour series, watch as the Jaguar XJ showcases its smooth ride and handling across the Yaxi ‘Skyroad’ Expressway in Chengdu, China. As the 240km-long road snakes through spectacular scenery in Sichuan Province, we find out how innovation in road technology and design is helping to match the improving ride of modern luxury cars in China.” Jaguar website

The crew used aerial, car-to-car tracking, tilt shift lenses and other techniques to showcase the road and the car. The video was shot with an Arri Amira camera in 4K.

The video was produced and directed by Mandarin Film’s Patrick Carr and shot by Aymerick Pilarski (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6221755/). Along with video the team also took along Anthony Cullen (http://www.anthonycullen.com) , an award winning UK photographer, who shot marketing stills, some also with the drone.

One of the most challenging elements to the shoot was organizing the road and drone permits for this part of the road. Permissions required multiple trips and involved relations with a number of different government and police departments. Secondly safety was a major concern, getting out of the car on busy sometimes very treacherous parts of the road required attention to detail, great communication and police assistance.

The shoot worked out great, nobody got hurt and we had an amazing time making a film in this beautiful part of Sichuan on a road that really can be considered one of the world’s great engineering marvels.

In the summer and autumn of 2015 Mandarin Film worked with True North to recreate the world of ‘Evil’ Empress Wu Zetian; China’s first and only empress of China in the seventh century. This docu-drama involved two intensive weeks shooting in Xi’An and Luoyang, with incredible access to never-before-seen artifacts, locations and experts. A highlight of the shoot was flying a drone over the site of Wu Zetian’s tomb.

Mandarin Film’s research team was tireless in securing access for the key locations. As many had never before allowed a film crew in there were many levels and multiple visits in person to make sure we got what we needed.

To really bring the documentary to life though we spent a further three days on a studio lot outside Beijing shooting scenes from the life of Wu Zetian. Everything had to be period, from the costumes, jewellery, props and furniture to the make-up and the hair. Extensive casting was made for Chinese actors to play key members of the court and three different Wu Zetians – the young, middle-aged and old. The set design team spent a week prior to the shoot making all the columns in the main buildings round and vermilion rather than square and black to properly match the times!

Mandarin Film was also able to help in the financing of the documentary, finding a Chinese partner to buy the greater China rights, and producing a Chinese version for a local audience.

Evil Empress will appear on screens on Channel 4, the Smithsonian, France 5 and others from Spring 2016.

As we head into spring here our top ten most amazing China locations from last year – We hope you enjoy the sights – and wish you a spectacular Year of the Monkey!

10. The School that Turned Chinese

What if the UK adopted the Chinese education system? Mandarin Film worked with BBC2’s new series ‘The School That Turned Chinese’ taking five teachers over to the UK for a month to teach British students using traditional Chinese techniques.

As part of the show they sent a small production team aided by Mandarin Film to China to film the teachers and students in their usual classes and at home with their families in Hangzhou and Nanjing.

So far so run-of-the-mill for a Mandarin Film co-operation with the BBC, but what happened next has got people pretty excited…

The series is provoking real debate both in the UK and China on the relative merits of their education systems and what’s best for our kids.

In a world where everyone is chasing the ultimate viral video, this appears to be one of only a few that is both viral AND intelligent! Take a look and let us know what you think!

9. Inner Mongolian Hippy Village

Mandarin Film has been working on a new feature length documentary about dance in China, written and directed by Mandarin Film founder Patrick Carr.

The documentary was shot all over China including Shanghai, Beijing, a small village near the Great Wall, and perhaps most spectacularly in Inner Mongolia. Our main character makes a journey to ‘rainbow village’ a hippy commune in the vast grasslands where we filmed beautiful plains, pristine lakes and a traditional Mongolian wedding. The journey took 8 hours by sealed road followed by four hours across the grassland, with frequent stops to dig our car out of the sand.

Escaping the Temple is now in post production and will be broadcast on TV in summer 2016 (Arte and SVT confirmed). Our aim is to create a wide outreach campaign for the movie, including festivals and performances around the world. To find out more join us our indiegogo campaign.

8. Forbidden City Three Wheelers

NDAs being the fearsome beasts they are, we can’t name the A list Hollywood actor we recently organized the China part of his new environmental documentary for, but the risk of being mobbed means we needed to keep constantly on the move. So how to showcase some of China’s iconic sites when there are literally millions of tourists on the streets waiting to pounce on our global superstar? The humble tricycle helped us scoot our star around town, evading the crowds and getting some amazing footage of our man on the street.

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7. Evil Empress Hang Outs

In the summer and autumn of 2015 Mandarin Film worked with True North to recreate the world of ‘Evil’ Empress Wu Zetian; China’s first and only empress of China in the seventh century. This docu-drama involved two intensive weeks shooting in Xi’An and Luoyang, with incredible access to artifacts, locations and experts. A highlight of the shoot was flying a drone over the site of Wu Zetian’s tomb.

To really bring the documentary to life though we spent a further three days on a studio lot outside Beijing shooting scenes from the life of Wu Zetian. Everything had to be period, from the costumes, jewellery, props and furniture to the make-up and the hair. The set design team spent a week prior to the shoot making all the columns in the main buildings round and vermilion rather than square and black to properly match the times!

Evil Empress will appear on screens on Channel 4, the Smithsonian, France 5 and others from Spring 2016.

6.Billie’s Secret Locations

In Secrets Of China, Billie JD Porter finds out what it’s really like to grow up in the country with the highest population on Earth. She discovers a surprising nation of super-hard-workers, romantics and millionaires, peeling back the layers of a sometimes secretive and proud society to ask 'what next?' for this complicated and fascinating place.

Mandarin Film helped Billie travel from the world-famous Great Wall, through Gotham-like megacities, to China’s only tropical island. Along the way Billie witnessed some of China’s unique phenomena, both old and new.

Billie said: “I will never forget my time in China, nor the real importance of the culture's three intertwined chief principles; wealth, obedience and marriage. The country's incredible history has shaped the nation to hold values so contrasting to ours, and it's been fascinating to see first-hand how different an experience growing up in China is compared to my own.”

5.The World’s Most Dangerous Hike

In this innovative series four lucky members of the British public took part in the road trip of a lifetime. Driving a UK registered Bedford Bambi camper van, they set off from England on August 10, 2015 and drove more than 15,000 miles to Australia, passing through 18 countries on the way.

The group planned to enter China from Kyrgyzstan (via the Torugart Pass), and then drive to the border with Laos via Kashgar, Kuqa, Turpan, Hami, Dunhuang, Lanzhou, Longnan, Chengdu, Pu’er and Jinhong. Over two thousand miles. All in just 3 weeks. In a crappy old van.

Problems came by the bucketful – how to cross a closed border? How to get foreign vans and drivers into the country when neither were legal? How to get a spare part that could only be found in the UK (answer fly it out to Thailand and have our fixer pick it up in Bangkok)? How to clear a tourist site at the busiest time of the year? How to keep our cast and crew safe on “The world’s most dangerous hike”? (See video) All issues were dealt with and the team were on their way – one of the most butt-achingly, stomach-churningly long distance journeys we’ve ever been involved with.

The show was aired on Channel 4 in the UK in December 2015.

4. Viral Locations (in a good way)

In January 2016 Mandarin Film completed a fast turnaround project filming in southern China and Europe, this Western Union commercial brought together a son and his parents working abroad.

After release the video went viral, clocking up over 100,000 plays in the first four days.

What made it go viral? It’s a million dollar question that seems impossible to answer, but the magic mix seemed to contain a good balance of no hard sell, a cute kid, a common problem, emotive storyline and, of course, great locations….

Mandarin Film works regularly with branding company Co.Mission based in New York to create amazing video content, and this Western Union campaign follows successful campaigns for Starbucks and Android amongst others.

3. Delivery Package Depot, China Scale

Mandarin Film worked with Alibaba to create a video seen around the world for 11.11, China’s shopping festival. In an amazingly complicated and time sensitive operation MF was responsible for all aspects of production, simultaneously managing 9 crews around China to come together to produce a video that needed to be shot, edited and outputted in just two days, and delivered to the world on 11.11 itself.

Our most amazing location was the distribution center that deals with hundreds of thousands of packages every day. We got an amazing drone shot that captures the vast scale and frenzied activity that goes into Alibaba’s operations. See from 1.07 of the video.

2. 5,000 years of China locations

Exploring the history of the world's oldest civilization and newest superpower, Story of China is an extraordinarily ambitious six part BBC/PBS landmark series presented by TV historian Michael Wood.

One of the biggest projects ever undertaken by Mandarin Film, the series has been three years and over one hundred shooting days in the making. Filming began in 2013 and the series aired on BBC2 in January 2016.

Locations galore - From Henan temple fairs a million people strong to ancient capitals, barges on the Grand Canal to Song dynasty cooking recipes, from the silk road to the modern cities of Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing, from modern day football matches to Maoist communes. But rather than tell you our favorite, why not let the great man Michael Wood take you through his highlights of this amazing series?

1. An Extraordinarily Large Ladder. Made of Fireworks.

A memorable moment of this Sundance- nominated feature doc was having eight camera crews overlooking the 2014 Beijing APEC event where our artist Cai Guoqiang was organizing a firework art piece for the world’s leaders and being told that our crews would be shot by snipers if they moved from their designated areas! Sharpens the mind.

But the most challenging part of the shoot (and our number one favourite location of 2015) came at the denouement of the film, when (without giving too much away) Cai attempts to suspend a 500 meter firework ladder from an enormous hot-air balloon. In total we organized eleven camera positions, with everything from Red Epics, Amiras, Movi rigs and Gopros to two remote control helicopter crews circling the action (in high wind).

To stay away from prying eyes, the event took place on a remote island in South East China with little electricity or internet connection, and several tonnes of equipment needed to be shipped to and fro using local fishing boats. On top of this, the onset of typhoon season meant days of delays, and a shoot on the edge of safety limits (No one wants a balloon carrying a ladder containing several tonnes of detonating fireworks drifting over their head).

The film has been selected for Sundance 2016. Click here to know more.

Not enough amazing locations? Sign up for our blog to receive them hot off the press, and check out last year’s too!

This Thursday at 9pm, BBC TWO, Michael Wood tells the tale of China’s most famous dynasty, founded by peasant rebel Hongwu. The film takes us all the way from his great capital Nanjing, to the Bao family village, to the ‘Venice of China’: Suzhou. We see the giant fortifications of the Great Wall, the ritual enclaves of the Forbidden City in Beijing and travel with Mr Hu down the Grand Canal – China’s great artery of commerce right up to the present day. And if that wasn’t enough, we even meet the westerner and Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, who hoped to convert China to Christianity.

Mandarin Film provided full production services for the series in China.